The Long Slog of 17.5

This past Thursday I watched Sara & Katrin, badasses of the CrossFit community, take on Dave Castro’s final workout of the 2017 CrossFit Open. They killed it in less than 7 minutes. Then we watched Ro vs. Boz do the same workout a bit slower, but still damn fast. And even before any of these four athletes took the floor, I knew I was going to have to scale this one.

The thrusters would have sucked at 95#, but that was doable. It was the double unders that I knew I was not going to be able to chug my way through.

17.5 was:

10 rounds (40 minute time cap)

9 thrusters (95/65# Rx, 65/45# Scaled)

35 double-unders (or 35 singles scaled)

Have I done the occasional double-under? Yes. Have I worked on them like I should have? Um, no. But I have a nice new jump rope from Rx Smart Gear that doesn’t kink like my last one and feels awesome, so I have hope that eventually I’ll be able to figure this skill out.

As a result, I decided that 40 minutes of hating myself wasn’t worth it and I should stick with going scaled.

The Event

When Friday rolled around, that was still my working theory. I arrived at CrossFit Continuum about 5 and began watching my crossfit family triumph and struggle through this workout. I watched my friend Jonathan blast through the scaled workout in less than 10 minutes. And his wife did it Rx in about 33 minutes, whipping herself with the rope time and time again to get through all those double unders like a champ.

I watched as some folks stopped halfway through the workout due to fighting the flu earlier in the week, back problems, or foot injuries. I watched as others worked through those double unders one at a time and battled the whole 40 minutes. And I saw a few get through it in 15-20 minutes like the champions they are.

And as the night wore on, I delayed my turn at the slog time and time again. In each heat there were 8-10 people going at a time and it was crazy. Bars, ropes, athletes, and judges everywhere. I simply didn’t feel comfortable adding my own flailing to the mix.

I knew that my wife was coming in after work — sometime around 7 — so I eventually postponed so it was just the two of us in the very last heat of the night. Mr Fitz vs. Dr Fitz. And I knew she was going to kick my ass. Guess what? She did. 🙂

Karen was kind enough to be my judge and Ashley was Ev’s. And I kept up pretty well through the first three rounds. She’s always been faster than me with her jump ropes and the light thrusters for her were no problem at all. Honestly they weren’t the worst part of the workout for me either. 65# was light. I went unbroken through nine reps through all but the last couple of rounds when I did sets of 5 and 4.

I look like I was thinking “Oh, do I have to?”

It was the jump rope that killed me. Between the good squats of the thrusters and the jumping, my legs were on fire. Everything from the quads above the knee, through the knee, and then into the calves was en fuego.

Ev finished in a bit more than 10 minutes. It took me 24. Yeah, you read that right. 24. She SMOKED me. And that was awesome. She did fantastic.

When I was done, I went to the ground to rest my legs and seriously had to get help to get back up again. Wobbly, angry legs.

It was great to work out in a heat alone with my wife. She has KILLED some of these workouts and seems to be stronger than years past, which is phenomenal. I love her. She’s a beast and a force of nature. I never get a chance to “compete” against her (not that we were really competing) and it was fun to see her dominate.

I was just happy to finish. 🙂 A huge thanks to the folks who stuck around to cheer us on. I appreciated the support and encouragement. I needed it a few times just to start jumping again. 🙂

After a bit of pondering, I’ll post some thoughts on this year’s Open, but for now I’m just happy to be done! Great work everybody!